The Shows Ya Gotta see is a monthly series highlighting "must-see" performances curated by See Chicago Dance critics.
Ya gotta see Poonie’s Cabaret on Nov. 1
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced the 2021 cohort of dance artists Thursday, including distinguished award-winning choreographer and performance artist Cynthia Oliver. Oliver is the only Illinois-based artist to receive the grant, an unrestricted $275,000 award supporting artistic exploration.
This weekend, Giordano Dance Chicago (GDC) enthusiastically opens its 59th season, celebrating its return to the Harris Theater stage after almost two years. While welcoming six new dancers (now 12 dancers total) to its roster, GDC also says farewell to company dancer Zachary Heller. It will be a bittersweet moment 14 years in the making.
“Rooting” and “ephemeral” seem counterintuitive on paper, but these concepts are beautifully and harmoniously embodied in Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape’s “Inception: ETHOS Episode II.” The durational nature-walk style dance and music installation premiered on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and marked the second iteration of Kato’s ETHOS trilogy.
Dressed in a sweet floral print vestido, Mexican American Choreographer Silvita Diaz Brown took center stage on Oct. 10 to introduce her latest dance film. An emotional Brown reminded us that this project is sacred. It holds all that is dear, and she is truly grateful that the stars have aligned for this offering to come forth.
“Welcome to our new home,” said Joffrey Ballet artistic director Ashley Wheater in a brief pre-performance curtain speech on Wednesday evening at the Lyric Opera House. After 20 years calling the Auditorium Theatre home and 18 months mired in a pandemic that canceled live, in-person shows, Chicago’s premier ballet company took the stage launching a new season, at a new home with a renewed sense of hope and a lot of emotion and enthusiasm. Home has many definitions; the most common is a place where one lives. It also can be a place where something flourishes.
The Seldoms have always taken their time, premiering new works every year or two. But little did artistic director Carrie Hanson know when she started her newest amalgamation, “Grass," in 2020, that she would be forced into a pregnant, pandemic pause.
After 20 years of performing with The Joffrey Ballet, dancer Joanna Wozniak traded in her pointe shoes for a corporate job. She also got married and is living an entirely new life. Her official last day as a ballerina was June 1, 2021, but she’s still adjusting to days filled with data and computers instead of plies and tendus. I spoke with her last month about the transition and what she’s doing now.
Sunday at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, Bril Barrett and his company M.A.D.D. Rhythms performed “Hoofin’ It: The Untold Story of the Founders of Tap,” an extravaganza that included live music, intricate rhythms, spoken word, theater elements, visual media and powerful ensemble work to engage a hybrid audience in the legacy of tap dance. “Hoofin’ It” was presented as the culmination of M.A.D.D. Rhythms’ annual Chicago Tap Summit and Barrett’s 2020 Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) Lab Artist grant award.
Mandala South Asian Performing Arts paints with broad strokes, adopting a multi-cultural, multi-genre lens. Rather than narrowly focusing on preservation of a single classical dance form, they say “yes” to pretty much everything. It’s a difference of approach that associate artistic director Ashwaty Chennat says reflects the experience of South Asians living in America.